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Recently the Victorian Government called for submissions in response to its Better Apartments discussion paper. Having collected 150 responses so far on the Rate My Apartment survey, authors of the survey, Atelier Red+Black took the opportunity to present some of the data to the government through the submission process.

We are very excited reveal our first results from our innovative research

It is a common argument put forward that due to apartment buildings being typically located near centres of urban activity, apartment dwellers do not want or require substantial living or kitchen spaces. This argument suggests that apartment residents would instead prefer to entertain guests in restaurants, pubs, cafes or public spaces.

This relatively straight forward assumption about how people want to live, is the first to be tested by the Rate My Building research project.

The hypothesis tested is as follows: is being able to entertain guests at home is as important to apartment dwellers as it is to those who live in detached houses?

We gave our data to an independent mathematician with experience in analysing scientific data. A Chi Square test was undertaken on the data which determined to a 95% confidence level that people living in houses and people living in apartments think the same way about entertaining guests in their home.

This research shows that Australians want to entertain guests in their home, regardless of whether that home is a single bedroom apartment or four bedroom house. Architects, property developers and local councils need to ensure that the dwellings that they are creating are genuinely suitable for entertaining guests.

This has important ramifications for developers who commission apartments, Architects who design them and Councils who approve them. Whilst the free market may apply significant pressure on the reduction of apartment sizes, Australians will not be satisfied with apartments where the kitchen and living spaces are so small that they cannot accommodate guests.

To read more about the methodology and results download our data sheet here

To help us continue our research please take 5 minutes to complete one of our surveys

“Architects are always concerned with how occupants will use their buildings. This research will shed further light on what is working and what isn’t. This can then enable us to design better performing buildings that actively respond to the end user requirements.”

Welcome to RateMyBuilding.com.au, the site where you get to evaluate the buildings you occupy. With the website now officially launched, we invite you to take a look around.

This website is an initiative from architects Atelier Red + Black to investigate what people really think about the built environment. Does your building function well? Is it frequently too hot or cold? What would you change? These are all questions that are crucial to understanding our buildings and the people who are using them.

We have started with four surveys – looking at stand-alone Houses, Townhouses, Apartments and Offices. In the future we hope to expand this further to look at other building types and other issues surrounding our built environment. If you have any questions about our project be sure to check out the FAQ section. If your question isn’t there please feel free to contact us to find your answers.

Finally we wish to thank you for your time in participating in our project.